Well, as a gun owner myself (I own 3 rifles, 2 pistols and 1 shotgun), I can give some good reasons for owning guns, aside from just personal protection.Originally Posted by DMKA
...and I suppose the same thing could be said about eletric chairs and gas chambers?
I hate guns with a passion, but I support ownership of them. I will never own one of them though, and I think most people want them for idiotic and illogical reasons, and they fail to use common sense to realize it.
But hey, idiot gun owners shooting each other dead is something I'm glad to see happen.
First of all, there's the grand sport of hunting. I buy a hunting license every year, and during the fall and winter I hunt squirrels, rabbits, pheasants, and deer. When I was stationed in San Diego during my Navy enlistment, I bought a Utah hunting license and hunted Gambell's Quail and Chukhars with my uncle. Of course, I don't always manage to bring any game back, but that's why they call it hunting.... you gotta hunt for it. I'm not a trophy hunter, either. I eat everything I kill, and in the case of the rabbits and squirrels, I try to save the tails for my dad, who uses the hairs for tying dry flies.
Second is the numerous target competitions, trap shoots, black powder rendezvous, and cowboy action shooting. All of these are great social events and, in the last two cases, a way of bringing history alive for the younger generation. My father, who only hunts with muzzle loading rifles and shotguns, used to go to local black powder rendezvous when I was young (most of the towns where I live pre-date both the American Revolution and the French and Indian War), and got me interested in colonial history and antique firearms. Many of the local trap-shooting competitions are for charity drives, and the registration fees are donated to local charities.
Finally, in the case of antique (and reproduction) guns, there is a historical interest. Two of my rifles, one a Marlin 336 lever action and the other a Nippur Lee-Enfield bolt action, have a marked historical interest (as well as being fine hunting rifles). The Nippur Lee-Enfield is the same design of the British Royal Army's first general use repeating rifle, but this one was made in 1967. In addition to that, it is chambered in 7.62mm NATO, rahther than .303 British. The reason is that when the United Kingdom switched to a 7.62mm NATO assault rifle in the early 1960's, India (which is still a British Commonwealth nation) could not afford enough of the new assault rifles for its army, so they used the Enfield manufacturing plant in Nippur to make a 7.62mm NATO No. 1 Enfield rifle.
The Marlin 336 Lever action is of interest due to the fact that it is the oldest continuosly produced rifle in the world. It's original designation was the Marlin 1893, but the design of the side-ejecting lever action mechanism (which set it apart from Winchester, Marlin's main competitor) is still almost identical to the original 1893 (the 336 was actually originally the designation for the Carbine version of the 1893 rifle, but the full-sized rifle was discontinued sometime in the 1960's).
Both of my are of historical interest. One is a reproduction of a cap and ball 1858 Remington Army model revolver in .44 caliber (although the bore diameter is actually .454" or the same as a .45 Colt Peacemaker), for which the originals saw a lot of service during the American Civil war. The Remington's design was sturdier and generally more reliable than the 1860 Colt Army and Navy series revolvers, and many officers purchased their own Remingtons during the war, with the result that almost as many Remingtons went to battle as Colts on the Union side. The second pistol has even deeper history, as well as some personal history. This pistol is a cap-lock .45 Kentucky muzzle loading pistol. This reproduction was made by my father when he was around 20, and about 10 years ago, he gave it to my Grandmother who, in turn, gave it to my Uncle (the one who I went bird hunting in Utah with), who gave it to me for Christmas last year.
Anyways, I think those are fairly good reasons for owning guns, myself. As for my views, anyone who is over 18, sane and has not commited any felonies should be allowed to own guns. The Clinton "Assautl Rifle" ban was a travesty, which I'm glad was reversed. That whole thing got through as a result of the oftentimes irresposible media misinforming people. You see all the assault weapons ban did was say, "Oh, that semi-auto AK-47 looks like a full auto AK-47, so it must be a bad gun! Oooh! I know! Let's BAN it!!!!11111one" Anybody who knows anything about guns or gun laws could tell you that full auto weapons have been strictly regulated for YEARS (you CAN own a full auto weapon, but you gotta get a special permit, and the only people I've ever heard of getting that permit are ex-military types who (a)were trained with machineguns and such in the military and (b)recieved an HONORABLE discharge). That's all I have to say on this subject.
